For this price you could buy 2 animatronic black knight toppers plus with the left over $100 you can buy a fully animatronic talking dead pool head.

The Elvira topper doesnt seem like it would be any cooler than an animatronic head.

You can get 4 pieces of the couch (along with 4 autographs and 4 very nice books) for the price of the topper.

https://www.amazon.com/Elvira-Mistress-Dark-Deluxe-Book/dp/0692756035/ref=mp_s_a_1_2

Trying to figure out what it might do based on the one pic we've seen and a the big price jump. All this is purely speculation on my part.

We know it has an open and close action since that shows up in the diagnostics menu. To do that it needs a motor or coil as well as a couple switches to let the game know what position it's in. That means at least 2 boards, the main topper interface board and a switch/LED/coil driver board. If they use a stepper motor instead of a coil that would require a third motor controller board. If they can't fit those 2 or 3 boards in the relatively thin looking topper then they also would need a mounting plate that installs in the backbox above the CPU.

The topper doesnt seem thick enough to have a mechanism to make the gargoyls jump and down so I'm guessing they are stationary.

It also appears there is a seem between the center part of the topper and the middle section. So.Im thinking this is the section that flios up. The middle section is pretty thin so an animatronic dead head and its required mechanics seems unlikely to fit in there. What would easily fit there is an LCD screen. This would likely also also require another node board (Batman66 needed a dedicated node board for the villain vision TV).

So if there as many as 4 boards plus a large LCD, that could be the reason for the higher cost as compared to other recent toppers. Still a hefty markup when you look at the BOM cost but it's probably scaling appropriately compared to the other toppers for 400 to 600 that only have a 1 or 2 boards, no movement, and no LCD.

If they are limitimg it to only 200 units as rumored its seems unlikely they would be significant content that would be exclusive to the topper. It just wouldnt make sense to spend the resources to add add a really cool new game play mode that only 200 owners would get to experience. So my guess is if there is exclusive content its fun but basic, like the goat mode with the JP topper.

But there is something they could do that I think would enhance gameplay for the topper owners which probably wouldnt require a significant coding effort.

My guess is that it has a flip up LCD that displays the floating dead heads on the topper LCD instead of having them on the main LCD. Many owners seem to be annoyed by the floating deadheads cluttering up the main display. So if they moved them to only be up on the topper screen that might look pretty cool. Even cooler would be a peppers ghost type setup where the floating head looked translucent (think RFM or Ghostbusters googles effect). Those hologram toppers could be used here as well but i think they to loud.

Elvira-Topper-scaled-e1597163051108.jpeg (resized).jpg

It has to have an LCD to justify the price.

My guess is that pic shows a static image because it was just a prototype to test the mechanics of it and didn't have a working LCD in it yet.

The one thing that I wasn't sure about was the aspect ratio. That teaser pic shows the image going across the entire middle section. I didnt think they made LCD's with an aspect ratio like that. I'm guessing around 16" wide by about 5" high give or take.

However a quick Google search shows that there are indeed ultrawide LCD displays. They arent cheap so that would also support a reason for the price hike.

rps20200904_224741 (resized).jpg

You have to think in relative terms. If the Avengers and Jurassic Park toppers which are just flat plastic and LED's sell for $600 the Elvira topper at $1000 probably has more to it to justify the higher price.

The Star wars topper for $750 was probably higher to relatively higher cost of license plus sheet metal is more expensive to fabricate than flat plastic in small batches.

Elvira topper that is based on the crypt with dead heads shouldn't have licensing fees like Star Wars so an ultra wide LCD seems like a likely reason to increase price.

So even thought LCD's are cheap (if its ultra wide size they are a bit more than standard sizes) they will still add to the cost. The actual cost of the parts is typically a fraction of the actual retail cost of the finished product.

Stern parts cost forJurassic park topper (plastic, lights, node boards, wiring harness) might be $100 but topper sells for $600.

Elvira topper raw parts cost might add another $75 or so for LCD so now topper scales up to $1000 instead of $600. It's all relative.

Never said it was a reasonable or justified cost from a buyer's perspective. I was just trying to think how Stern would have come up with that price.

I do think it's funny to see all the butt hurt form people regarding Sterns pricing. All of the stuff they sell; machines, mods, toppers, etc is all ridiculously over-priced non-essential toys.

Stern appears to know what they are doing from a business perspective considering their success over the last decade. If you dont like what they charge for stuff dont buy it and move on. If they think they can sell 200 of these at 1K good for them. If they dont sell all 200 then maybe they will re-evaluate their strategy for the next one. The market will dicate if it was a smart pricing strategy for them or not.

If you thinks it's a waste of money and not a good value that's fine too but dont whine and cry about it.

The center flip up part is very wide and narrow. So if (big if since we are just guessing what it does) it has an LCD and that LCD fills that full wide narrow area then it's not a standard size LCD. As soon as you go to a non popular size for anything (LCD's, tires, windows, doors, etc) the cost goes up.

We still dont know what they would show on the display (or if it even has a display) but if it was a dead head that floats around it would be very tiny on that size screen.

That topper is a perfect layout for a topper with her on the couch and the pinballs. Maybe the original designer could work out a deal with Elvira herself and sell them on her website so she gets a cut. He could make 3 versions that are the same with the only difference being the name on it: "House of Horrors", "Scared Stiff", or "Party Monsters". That way people with any of the 3 games could use it.

Sometimes simplier is better, it looks fantastic but not so elaborate that it wouldnt too difficult to recreate. Its appears to be laser cut plastic staggered in a few layers to give a little dimension to it. Artwork is stuck on top of the plastic and a few LED's to backlit it and pulse behind the logo. I think the hardest part would be getting a nice hi-res copy of that artwork.

No details have been released yet but It shouldnt be any taller than previous Stern toppers.

At one of the shows Stern said they have a max height restriction they try to stick with so there is consistency from game to game. So if you have any of the other Stern toppers and they fit in your low ceiling then the Elvira one probably will as well.

The Star Wars topper is limited edition and $750 and is one of the few Stern toppers that hasn't sold out yet. Maybe $750 is the current topper ceiling?

500

rps20200907_213320 (resized).jpg

I'd be surprised if the higher cost of EHOH was due mainly to the license. If you start looking at the sheer number of mechanics in the game, multiple motors, tons of optos, elaborate house, etc I think it just costs more to make the game compared to their usual pro model.

But we dont even know what it really does yet.

Hopefully the new code drops soon and deadflip will reveal all.

I think I remeber reading that the heads were even designed by the main SPFX/makeup guy from the show, Greg Nicotero.

Yes. I actually found the topper announcement from stern that mentions it.

Screenshot_20200910-134450_Samsung Internet (resized).jpg

Although he is credited as the producer for the show, his main career has been with special makeup effects. He's worked on tons movies and tv shows and is a genius at that stuff.
26creepshow1-articleLarge (resized).jpg

One man's crap is another man's treasure

That's what it all boils down to.

If Stern can sell 200 toppers for 1000 then they absolutely should do that because there are a business. They price things to make money so they can grow and make more things to sell. If they are priced so high that they dont sell out (like maybe Star Wars toppers) then the market will react accordingly and they will lose money.

Maybe people who are upset about this should put their money where their mouth is and start their own topper business, obtain licenses, and sell toppers at razor thin margins because of their love of the hobby.

I dont understand why people get mad when they can't afford a frivolous luxury item. I would love to have the latest Tesla but I cant afford it. I dont complain and whine about it online . Instead I think to myself, "nice car, but too rich for my blood" and move on. I dont disparage other people who can afford them and buy them, good for them.

Do people go to online forums and complain about the cost of Louboutin shoes, Coach handbags, Bugatti cars, or Montblanc pens?

If its limited it's more likely to sell out due to the "fear of missing out" factor. The tricky part for them is to figure how many is just enough but not too much.

I thought on one of the podcasts they said inital run of 200 but didnt explicitly say there might not be more runs in the future based on demand. Maybe I heard that wrong?

One of the cool things about this hobby is if you spend 9k on a new NIB LE you really arent losing a full 9K. If you decide to sell it you will get a lot of your money back.

Even in a worst case scenario if you buy a real bomb like Sterns WWE you'd probably get 1/2 your money back. But in most cases you lose maybe 1 or 2K after a year or two. Most people can swallow that kind of loss considering they got the full NIB experience and a year or two of unlimited play. If you buy lightly used games you typically lose even less.

Looks like that's happening now with Sterns toppers resale value. If you sell it you will likely get most of your money back.

Maybe wait and see what it does and how it looks in person or at least better photographs before passing judgement.

LOL!

tenor-5.gif

Looks like it might be a backlit graphic,kinda like a mini backbox?

It will be interesting to see if the topper's interactivity is just opening and closing and lighting effects or if it also unlocks a mode or feature in the game itself.

I dont think I've ever seen Stern lower the price of something after it was released. If a distributor decided to lower the price to just get rid of inventory that might happen, but not Stern themselves.